Rivalry
by Fictatious
Summary: Noa knows that Seto is meant to be his rival and inspire him to work hard to hold onto his birth-right, but he's not quite sure what his relationship to Mokuba is meant to be. It's not yaoi.
1. Chapter 1

His new 'twin' was meant to inspire him to study harder, and Noa agreed that it was a good idea. Being an only child, he'd never had particular reason to excel, as he had no one to compete against for inheritance of his father's legacy. His father had made hundreds of orphanages across Japan administer IQ tests to all of the children between eight and twelve by promising them generous donations in return, and a bonus for the institute that produced the child with the highest score. It had been rather a surprise that the 'winner' was so much alike to Noa in age and looks.

Seto was three months older than Noa and had achieved a score of 162 on the IQ test. He was a super-genius. Noa's score was 147, he was technically a genius, but of a more average variety than Seto. His father said that the 15-point difference could be overcome by hard work and discipline, if Noa dedicated himself to his studies hard enough, and he already had the advantage of breading and a head-start on his education. His father said that he was confident that Noa could become a better business man than his new 'brother', but that he would be forced to work hard for it. It was his first test of his oncoming adulthood that he would have to earn his place in his father's company, rather than having it simply given to him like everything always had been.

His father had explained this test to him before Seto's test results had put him at the top of the list of candidates, and so Noa had known that he was getting a brother, who would be his rival, before he knew who it would be. What hadn't been expected was that the high-scorer on the IQ tests would have a brother of his own, one whom he would not be parted from. And so instead of getting just one brother, Noa suddenly found himself with two.

Mokuba's IQ score was 129. He was smart, but he wasn't a genius. He wasn't a competitor for the Kaiba fortune, he was merely an accessory. A non-threat. Noa had known and understood his relationship to his would-be rival, but he wasn't at all sure how to regard the younger boy that had come as part of the package. He met them both on the same day and in the same circumstance. He'd stood in the entrance hall next to his father as one of his servants presented two boys in faded, dingy clothes that looked several years out of date.

The following day was a Sunday and Noa met them again in the front hall. He watched them from the stairs as one of the house servants, Junko, was directing them to put on their shoes and jackets. Noa tilted his head curiously. 'Where are you taking them, Junko-san?' he asked.

Junko looked up at him and smiled. 'We're going to go shopping, Noa-bozu,' she replied. 'Seto-bozu and Mokuba-bozu need new clothes, the ones from the orphanage aren't appropriate for your brothers' new status. Would you like to come along? Maybe we could get a treat afterwards.'

Noa conidered for a minute, examining his new 'brothers' as Seto looked suspiciously back up at him and Mokuba let his hair hide his face while he mashed his foot into the rattiest shoe Noa had ever seen. They were a strange curiosity. Now that Seto was here, perhaps Noa should spend his free-day studying, to keep his edge over the rival. But then, his councilor had told him that it was important to have fun on his holidays and to always be well-rested; if he let himself work too hard, he would become absent-minded. Hard work and rest had to be properly balanced.

And so he nodded and said, 'I do,' collecting a light-weight wool jacket from the coat-closet and stepping into his very nice shoes. He again looked over at his 'brothers' before Junko shuffled them all out the door towards a waiting car.

In the car he and Junko sat in the set of seats that faced forwards and Seto and Mokuba sat in the ones that faced them. 'Well, isn't this nice? It will be a good chance to get to know each other,' Junko said brightly. 'Seto-bozu, you and Noa-bozu are the same age, you know. I think you'll be excellent play-mates. Do you have any favorite games?'

Seto didn't look at Junko, but stared unabashedly at Noa the whole time. A moment of silence began to stretch and Junko was just opening her mouth to fill it when Seto asked, 'Do you play chess?'

Noa tilted his head and smirked a little with interest. 'I do. And shogi, and go,' he replied. 'Father said that you tested very high. I wonder if that will be reflected in your game.'

Seto worked his jaw and looked Noa over carefully, seeming to size him up. 'No one has ever beat me at chess or go,' he said. 'I've never had the opportunity to play shogi, but I've read about it. I'm sure I could master it within an hour.'

Noa's smirk widened. 'Perhaps I shall teach you then,' he said. 'We can play after supper. My mathematics tutor says that playing complex strategy games is excellent mental exercise.'

'I suppose your tutors taught you how to play,' Seto said, still staring in a way that seemed to challenge Noa to break eye-contact. 'I'm self-taught.'

'Well they say that Musashi had no teacher either,' Noa said with a cheerful smile. 'Perhaps a self-taught chess-player could be the best in Japan.'

'I suppose we'll have to find out,' Seto said quietly.

'Well that's wonderful!' Junko clapped her hands. 'You two will get along so well!' She turned her smile on Mokuba. 'What about you, Mokuba-bozu?' she asked. 'What do you like to do?'

Mokuba clung to Seto's sleeve and squirmed, looking at his knees. 'Mm, um,' the small boy mumbled, flushing a bit. 'I-I like to watch Nii-san play chess. I'm not good at it so he doesn't play with me, but sometimes he does and it's fun even though I loose.'

Noa studied Mokuba, frowning slightly. 'You only develop skill by practicing, you know. If Seto wanted a better opponent maybe he should have given you more chances to practice.'

'Now, Noa-bozu, that sounded a little rude,' Junko chided softly, but Seto ignored her and rebutted without pause.

'He's not dedicated to the game. He'll never be good enough to beat me so it'd be a waste of my time to teach him. And it's not like I could enjoy it, there's no victory in defeating someone weaker than yourself.'

Noa stared at him openly, feeling slightly surprised at how cold Seto's speech had sounded. He glanced to Mokuba beside him, who had curled in on himself minutely and was chewing on his lip, looking faintly ashamed. 'Well there's probably things Mokuba's good at that you can't do,' he said, not sure whether he just wanted to argue with the other boy or if he felt a pang of sympathy for the little brother. 'What kind of games do you play, Mokuba?'

Mokuba looked up at him, seeming a bit startled, and flushed again. 'I, um, not really anything that's really a game or anything...' he mumbled, fidgeting with his overly long sleeve. 'I, mm, I like capsule-toys...'

'What's a capsule-toy?' Noa asked, pointedly ignoring Seto and giving full attention to the younger boy.

Mokuba gave him an odd look, as though these 'capsule-toys' were something everybody knew and understood. That made Noa feel a bit embarrassed, that there was some bit of knowledge he was missing that this poorly-educated little ex-orphan could have.

'It's small toys that come inside of plastic capsules like this,' he held his index-fingers and thumbs in a circle shape to demonstrate the size, 'and they come out of machines in front of stores.' He put down his hands and chewed on his lip, looking shy but a little more confident than before. 'They only cost a one-hundred yen coin. There was a nice lady who worked at a store near the orphanage and she'd trade me a one-hundred yen coin if I saved up the smaller coins that I collected, so then I could buy a toy from the machine.' He smiled shyly, looking down at his hands again. 'I have six,' he said in a little voice that was almost a whisper. Then he frowned, his nose wrinkling up a bit, 'I had seven, but Itsuki broke Super-Bomber and twisted his head off...'

'Oh that's awful!' Junko exclaimed. 'What a mean boy!'

Noa glanced up at Junko and nodded, it did seem a strange and wretched thing to do. The total worth of Mokuba's worldly possessions was a miserable seven-hundred yen and a bully had seen fit to destroy 15% of his tiny collection. 'I'll buy you a new one!' Noa promised, feeling oddly compelled by just how pathetic Mokuba's plight seemed.

Mokuba looked up at him, eyes wide and startled, and Noa noticed that next to him Seto had suddenly locked a glare on him. 'Y-you don't have to, um, that's okay, I was just mad at Itsuki, but Nii-san beat him up really good.' Mokuba seemed to be very flustered and embarrassed suddenly. Maybe he'd never had a gift before, they were ex-orphans after all, nobody had cared about them.

'It's only one-hundred yen, right?' Noa urged, giving Mokuba a friendly smile and being intrigued by the way Seto's glare seemed to be intensifying, like he was trying to drill a hole into Noa's head. 'I'll get some for myself too and you can teach me how to play with them!'

'That's so generous, Noa-bozu!' Junko praised. 'Your parents will be proud of you!'

'It's not a _game_,' Seto cut in, his voice raised slightly. 'They're just trading-figures.'

'Well it's playing pretend, right Mokuba?' Noa said, intrigued by Seto's reaction. 'Playing pretend can be just as fun as a structured game, right Mokuba?'

'_He's not your brother!_' Seto shouted, slamming his hands down on the seat and glaring fully, challengingly, at Noa, who stared back at him, intrigued.

Junko was saying something, trying to soothe them all and defuse the situation, but Noa wasn't paying attention to her at all, he was busy being utterly fascinated by his 'brother'. Curious. And analyzing the peculiar reaction in his mind, it suddenly occurred to Noa _why_ Mokuba was here. It was another field on which to compete with his new rival. Not only did he now have the chance to prove himself the better son; he could also compete to be the better brother.

Noa could feel his lips pealing back from his teeth slightly as the corners tugged outward in a wide grin. This would be an interesting competition indeed.

...

A/N: Well this is a bit unexpected... Never really thought I'd be writing Yugioh fic, much less Yugioh-filler fic... Ah, I'm not really sure what I'm doing here or how this happened, the idea got into my head somehow (I haven't even watched this filler-arc! I only read through the episode summaries!) and I had to write it. I suppose this story runs on the assumption that Noa doesn't die and stuff, I'm not sure whether I'd write follow-up or not, I'm still kind of baffled that this came out of me.


	2. Chapter 2, apparently

The brave knight locked into his saddle with a snap and then his horse charged around the carpet with the back and forth swaying motion of a creature who's legs were fused into one solid piece of plastic. 'I'm going to save the princess!' Mokuba declared, rocking his knight back towards the castle, which was short a roof and two walls.

'The princess!' Noa exclaimed, digging through the pile of Legos spread out around them and coming up with a pink, conical hat and a green alligator. The alligator didn't have any spots on its head, so he stuck the hat just over it's shoulder. 'Princess Alligator needs help!' Noa announced, sticking the alligator's head through one of the openings in the castle wall.

Mokuba laughed so hard he dropped his knight. 'Yes!' he agreed, picking up the knight again and charging towards the castle. 'She's being held prisoner by an evil sorcerer!'

'An evil sorcerer who is also... a monkey-ninja!' Noa continued, snapping a gray katana into the yellow hand of a monkey and then connecting the monkey's other hand to a flag-pole.

Mokuba shrieked with delight. Soon the knight discovered that Princess Alligator could not fit through the window and so he would have to battle the ninja-monkey-sorcerer and his army of parrots, snakes and palm trees. He was throwing rectangular boulders at a palm tree when Mr. Kaiba entered the play-room.

'Noa,' Mr. Kaiba said, interrupting the rescue attempt and raising an eyebrow at the Legos, 'why aren't you studying?'

'I finished for the day,' Noa answered, holding an evil palm tree in one hand and an evil snake in the other. 'I've done all the problems Tanaka-sensei assigned and I've read my history book and my chemistry book and I wrote an essay in English and I even practiced my calligraphy.'

Mr. Kaiba frowned as he continued to look down at Noa and then around the room. Mokuba silently turned his knight and horse around in his hands, staring raptly down at it and hiding himself behind his long hair. Noa stared back up at his father with a calm expression. After a while, Mr. Kaiba spoke again. 'And where is Seto?' he asked.

'Studying,' Noa answered without hesitance. 'He said that he has to master English as soon as possible so that he can start learning Chinese.'

Mr. Kaiba's frown deepened. '... And that does not strike you as strange? That Seto is studying and you are playing with blocks?' he asked in a low voice.

'It strikes me as unhealthy, sir,' Noa answered without blinking.

Mr. Kaiba's frown suddenly shifted from mild irritation to deep affront. 'Noa, you will go to your room and you will attend your studies,' his voice was downright cold now.

'I have finished my studies for the day, sir. I am fully prepared for tomorrow's lessons,' Noa said, looking down at the palm tree in his hands, no longer able to hold his father's eyes. A moment of silence passed and then suddenly Noa's face was knocked to the side by a sharp slap on the cheek. He gasped and looked back up at his father with wide, startled eyes.

'_Study_,' Mr. Kaiba ordered icily, glaring at his son.

'... Noa...' Mokuba whimpered softly, gripping his Lego knight hard between his small hands.

Mr. Kaiba's glare focused on the smaller boy and he said, 'You two are not to see each other outside of mealtimes for the duration of the week.' He looked back up at Noa, whose palm-tree had snapped apart at two of the joints from being squeezed too tightly. 'Go to your room, Noa,' he ordered again.

Noa opened his hands, letting the Lego-bits fall to the carpet and stood up, biting his lip and trying very hard not to say a word, as he stood up. He walked out of the room without looking back at Mokuba. Mr. Kaiba followed him to the door, but he did glance back into the room to where Mokuba was sitting in among a sea of brightly-colored blocks. 'Clean this mess up,' he snapped, and then left.

Mokuba sniffled and held the knight close to his chest.

...

A/N: I've been talked into writing some more little bits for this one. I don't have a specific plan of anywhere for this to go, not sure, probably won't have any real conclusion or anything.


	3. Chapter 3

Mokuba had run along excitedly on the flat part of the path, laughing and swishing his arms back and forth, delighted with the huge haori sleeves swinging from them. Noa and Seto had been able to keep up easily, but Junko kept calling breathlessly at them to slow down and wait for her. When they hit the stairs, however, Mokuba slowed down a great deal and stopped laughing in favor of panting as he kept scrambling towards the upper shrine.

"Don't slow down, Mokuba!" Noa shouted, running up a few steps ahead of him. "Or you'll be six before you get to the top and then you can't have any chitose candy!"

"Nooo!" Mokuba cried with a gasping little giggle.

"Don't say stupid things," Seto snorted as he kept walking at a steady pace between the giant tori. "We'll be there in time for lunch, Mokuba."

"I know that," Mokuba huffed. "It was a joke, Nii-san!"

"Well it was stupid."

"Now Seto-bozu, this is a fun day!" Junko said with a bright smile, having finally managed to keep pace with the boys. "It's all right to be silly and have fun!"

"I thought there would be more people here," Noa commented, spinning around the post of one of the tori. "Where is everybody? Mokuba can't be the only five-year-old around."

"It's not a _holiday_," Seto scoffed. "Normal people have to work. They'll bring their kids on Saturday."

"Really?" Noa paused on the step for a minute before skipping up five more to keep ahead of Mokuba. "It should be a holiday! It's super important!"

"It's not that important."

"Now that's not nice, Seto-bozu, this is a big day for Mokuba-bozu!" Junko chided. "It's his first time wearing a hakama, because he's a big boy now!"

"People don't even wear hakama anymore," Seto answered with a sour expression. "And Mokuba's just a day older than he was yesterday."

"Ooh, existential!" Noa called and laughed.

"W-what's existen-tial, Noa-Nii?" Mokuba panted.

"It means Seto-Nii's being all philosophical and stuff," Noa explained, stopping to poke at a crack in the steps with his toe.

"I told you not to call me that," Seto growled.

"Oh, Seto-bozu, you should be flattered." Junko patted his shoulder. "Noa-bozu calls you that because he admires you!"

"He does it to mock me," Seto snorted.

"Not at all!" Noa exclaimed. "You're my brother and you're older than me, so you're Seto-_Nii_-san!" Noa laughed and returned Seto's glare with a cheeky grin.

"There, you see!" Junko said brightly, smiling down at Seto, who didn't look at her or respond.

When they finally reached the upper shrine, Mokuba shrieked excitedly and ran around in celebration, making way too much noise for a shrine, as he'd apparently having gotten a second-wind. Junko had them stand together while she took pictures of Mokuba in his traditional outfit, flanked by Seto and Noa in western-style suits. She must have taken three dozen pictures, making them stand in front of different parts of the shrine, before she finally put the camera away and presented Mokuba with a bag of candy-sticks.

After making their offerings to the temple, Junko shuffled them towards the restaurant. "There, are we all settled?" she asked after they were seated. "I'm going to use the restroom, don't order until I come back, okay?"

Once Junko disappeared, Noa pushed up to his knees on his chair and slammed his hands down on the table. "Why are you being so crabby?" he demanded.

Seto glanced away. "I'm not. This is just pointless," he retorted. "It's a waste of time."

"Stop it! This is Mokuba's festival and you're being really mean him!"

Seto glanced sideways at Mokuba, who was looking down and fidgeting with his napkin, wearing a dejected little frown. He was silent for a few seconds and then quietly said, "I'm sorry, Mokuba. I'm just tired. I'm glad you're having fun."

Mokuba's face brightened and he smiled up at Seto. "That's okay, Nii-san. I know you work really hard. Do you want some of my chitose candy?" He held out the bag of candy-sticks.

"... That's your candy, Mokuba. You should eat it."

"Oh, okay," Mokuba glanced down, his face dimming a bit, and laid his candy on the table. "I'm really glad you came with us, Nii-san."

Noa leaned on his elbows, frowning suspiciously. It was true that Seto did get particularly crabby when he was tired, but this seemed like something else somehow. He was about to ask another question when Junko appeared again and started talking cheerfully about the traditional delicacies of Kyoto.

...

There was a knock at the door and Seto glanced up from his calculus book for half a second before returning his eyes to the proof on the page in front of him and calling out, "It's open, Mokuba." He heard the door open but didn't pay any attention until the person who'd opened it spoke.

"So it is. I'm coming in then," Noa called politely.

Seto's head snapped up, the textbook forgotten, and he glared at Noa. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Well, I believe I did hear an invitation when I knocked," Noa answered with one of his usual incredibly annoying grins and a small shrug.

"I thought it was Mokuba," Seto snapped. "What do you want?"

"I want to know why you were such a wet-blanket today. This was a big day for Mokuba and you totally ruined it," Noa answered walking right up to Seto's desk and stopping in front of it.

Seto gritted his teeth and felt the pencil in his hand crack. "He's _not_ your brother," he hissed.

Noa's eyes narrowed, the stupid smile being replaced by a tiny little frown. He pressed his fingertips to the edge of Seto's desk and leaned forward. "Then what are you doing in my father's house?" he asked in almost a whisper.

They glared at each other for several seconds before Noa straightened back up. "You're not a very good playmate you know. Sometimes I think you don't _want_ to be my brother."

"I'm not your _playmate_," Seto snapped. "I'm your _rival_ and it's about time you took me seriously."

"Oh, I do take you seriously, Seto," Noa returned. "You are an extremely competent individual. I'm sure you'd run Father's company very admirably. Until you died of a brain-aneurysm at age twenty."

Another glaring-contest ensued. "What were you so pissed-off about today?" Noa demanded.

Seto snorted and glanced away. "Why would I even want to run a company that's only interested in making weapons for killing poor-people?"

"What are you talking about?" Noa frowned.

"I went to see Father yesterday. I brought him the patent application and schematics I'd made for a compact holographic projection system." Seto wasn't really sure why he was telling Noa this. "He slapped me and threw my plans in the wastebasket."

Noa blinked, clearly surprised. "Why? That sounds amazing, I mean, if it would really work and be portable and things."

"It would," Seto said, irritated by the implication of Noa's 'if'. "He was angry because I made it as part of a game system, the next level of virtual reality. He told me that I shouldn't be wasting my time with useless thing like games, and if I was going to try to patent something, it should have military application."

Noa frowned. "Why?"

"Because Kaiba Corp makes weapons," Seto said, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms. "That's all it does. It makes weapons and it makes plains and trucks with weapons _in_ them. Kaiba Corp kills people. That's all it does."

Noa bit his lip, his brow drawing together. "T-that can't be true... I mean... It's a big corporation, it must do other things and... and the weapons are for _protecting_ people."

"Don't be so naïve," Seto spat. "Maybe Kaiba Corp is a big corporation, but weapons-manufacture is a _huge _business. And how do you think a gun protects people? By killing _other_ people."

"I... I don't believe you..." Noa said, not looking at all sure.

Seto studied Noa for a while before coming to a decision. He pushed back his chair and stood up. "Let me show you something," he said and turned, walking across the room to his computer carrel. He heard Noa follow him, but the other boy didn't say anything.

Seto sat down at the carrel and switched his computer out of sleep-mode. He opened up his folders, scrolling to the one titled 'Legacy,' and opened it as a slide-show. Every image he'd managed to collect of war-zones, with soldiers and rebels carrying weapons with the Kaiba Corp logo stamped on them, pictures of bodies, burned almost beyond recognition by Kaiba Corp shells, pictures of Kaiba Corps stealth jet dropping bombs, pictures of children _their_ age carrying automatic rifles manufactured by Kaiba Corp, all of them flashed slowly across the computer screen.

Noa's eyes were glued to the screen, but Seto was watching _him_. He noted the other boy beginning to blink a lot and sweat, his face twisted by a number of emotions. "H-how many pictures do you _have?_" Noa asked after several minutes had gone past and the images hadn't yet looped.

"A hundred and thirty-seven," Seto answered in a flat voice. "That's all I've been able to collect in the last three months. They're difficult to find because Kaiba Corp pays off the news media not to show them."

Noa swallowed hard; Seto could see his hands shaking at his sides.

"Don't tell me you've never seen any of these," Seto drawled. "This is the Legacy you're working so hard to inherit."

"I- _I don't want it!_" Noa shouted, stamping his foot and sweeping his arms out, as though pushing something away from him, as he squeezed his eyes shut.

"Only a sociopath would," Seto replied calmly.

"B-but th-then why are _you_...?" he stammered.

"Hm, that's a good question... Maybe I'll dismantle it," Seto mused. "Or refocus its resources towards something... friendlier."

Noa bit his lips and looked at the carpet for a few seconds, thinking, then looked back up to Seto. "Like what?"

Seto shut down the slide-show and turned sideways in his chair, leaning against the back of it and watching Noa carefully. "In Ancient Greece, once every four years, all the wars between the Greek states stopped. Nobody fought at all. Do you know why?"

Noa frowned for a moment and then said, "The Olympic Games."

"Right. Victory at the Games was more important, to all the nations of Ancient Greece, than any political conflict." Seto felt himself smiling. "It's been said by plenty of philosophers that the organized competition of sports and games is a substitute for war, sparing the devastation and trauma, and leaving behind only pride."

"... You're going to make games?" Noa asked, looking intrigued.

"The best games the world has ever seen," Seto said smugly. "I want to integrate the technology of videogames with real-world games." He got up again and went back to his desk, opening a drawer, and taking out a hand-sized box. He turned and tossed it to Noa.

Noa caught it easily and gave it a curious look before untucking the flap and shaking the contents into his hand. "Trading cards?" he asked, frowning.

"No, it's a game. It uses the tried-and-tested swords and sorcery setting, but that's not the important part. It's as versatile and ever-expanding as table-top gaming, but with the rapid pace and competitive spirit of a video game." Seto dropped into his desk chair and he could feel the cocky grin on his face as he continued. "Right now it has a small graphic element to it with the cards, but think of how much more intense, enjoyable and _marketable_ the experience could be made with fully animated battles."

"... You'd be cornering an entirely new industry with an _already established_ user-base," Noa said quietly, his eyes wide as he looked down at the cards in his hands. Then he blinked and looked up at Seto, an oddly excited expression on his face. "The holographic projection system!"

"Right now, the smallest I'd be able to reasonably make something like this would be a stage, about the size of a wrestling ring, but as the technology advances, one day I might be able to make it small enough to be worn by the player," Seto said, sitting back and feeling particularly satisfied with Noa's earnest excitement.

"Like laser-tag!" Noa exclaimed, then he looked back down at the cards and his mouth twisted to the side a little, his brow furrowing just slightly. "But there must be hundreds of different cards, and new ones could be produced very quickly. The graphic development would be enormous."

"But there's no programming for story or tactics, no need for writers or voice actors, because the player takes center-stage here," Seto pointed out. "For any given monster-card, you'd just need the 3D character mesh and a handful of animations for attacks and being attacked. It would use real-time rendering like a video game, so you wouldn't need to create individual animations for every combination of monsters."

"Sound effects! You can't have it without sound effects!" Noa declared, hopping a little in excitement.

...

...

Cultural Notes:

The festival they're celebrating here is Shichi-Go-San, Sevens, Fives and Threes Day, when three-year-old children, five-year-old boys and seven-year-old girls are celebrated as moving into the next phase of their lives.

Traditionally this day would be a five-year-old boy's first time wearing adult clothes (hakama and haori) and it would be a seven-year-old girl's first time tying her kimono with an obi. Seven-year-old girls are still mostly dressed up in kimonos for this event, but boys usually wear Western-style clothes today. But I figured that since they obviously have enough money to play with and why-the-hell-not, Mokuba got to wear traditional duds.

The chitose ame Mokuba receives are white sticks representing long-life, special for this festival.

The shrine they're at is Fushimi Inari, famous for its 10-thousand tori lining the walkway between the temple at the base of the hill and the one at the top. This is the primary shrine to Inari, the patron of rice and businessmen.

Author's notes:

Before anybody freaks out, I am still working on Serpentine. This just came into my head and it wrote itself very quickly, and I do want to play around with this little universe more too, and I guess I've started thinking about my other open plot-lines again as Serpentine is almost over.

Please send a review, they bring me a great measure of happiness.


	4. Chapter 4

Mokuba had no idea what was happening. A single second hardly ever seemed to pass before one of his brothers slapped the clock, signaling the other's turn. The chess pieces scurried around the board and disappeared so quickly, Mokuba couldn't even keep track of which ones were present.

"Checkmate," Seto said.

"Right," Noa agreed, stopping the clock.

They handed each other the pieces they'd taken and reset the board. Seto started, moving out a pawn as Noa turned the clock back on. Three moves in, Mokuba was lost again. Their matches never seemed to last a full five minutes. They must have played at _least_ twenty rounds and it hadn't been an hour. Mokuba was getting kind of tired of watching the nearly silent games and not being able to follow them, but he liked seeing Seto seeming to truly enjoy himself. Noa could keep up with him, unlike Mokuba, and Seto seemed to like the whirlwind pace of their play.

The door opened, though nobody had knocked, and as Mokuba twisted around, he was unsurprised to see that the intruder was Gozaburo. Mokuba sat up straight and proper in his chair and watched the man drift across the room. Noa and Seto didn't even seem to notice he was there.

"Checkmate," Noa said suddenly and Mokuba jumped a little.

"Mm." Seto nodded. They stopped the clock and began resetting the board again.

"Well, it seems that you two are getting along quite well today," Gozaburo noted in an amused voice.

"Hello, Father," Noa and Seto said in unison, not taking their eyes off the board. Seto slapped the clock back on and Noa moved a pawn.

For the next four minutes the only sounds punctuating the silence of the room were the tiny thumps as Seto or Noa put down a piece with particular force and the slaps of the game clock. "Checkmate," Seto announced, breaking the cycle. Mokuba couldn't even see the checkmate, but apparently Noa could, because he nodded and turned off the clock.

"Well done, Seto," Gozaburo praised, patting Seto on the head.

Seto didn't even look up as he said "Thank you, Father," and handed Noa back his captured pieces while retrieved his own.

"What's wrong, Mokuba?" Gozaburo asked as another match started. "You don't have anyone to play with?"

Mokuba shook his head slowly. "I can't play as fast as them," he said quietly. "They're really amazing."

Gozaburo smiled. "Yes, _one_ of them is the future of the Kaiba Corporation," he agreed. Mokuba saw both Seto and Noa pause for a moment, but only a moment and then their attention was back on the game.

"Did you need something, Father?" Noa asked, watching Seto's move and then making his own after the slap; it was almost more like tennis than chess, slap slap slap slap return return return return.

"Not really, I just wanted to see how my boys were spending their day off," Gozaburo said. "It seems you're both making constructive use of your time. You know chess is truly a _battle_, much the same as business."

"Yes sir, we've both read the Book of Five Rings," Seto answered, his tone neutral, although the statement still could have been taken as somewhat insolent.

But Gozaburo only smiled and nodded and then put a hand on top of each of their heads. "Well then you boys keep playing and exercising your strategizing and problem-solving skills," he said, giving them both a light pat.

"Yes, sir," they answered, still not looking up, as Gozaburo turned and walked back out of the room.

"Check-"

Seto's announcement of victory cut off as Noa's arm suddenly swung out and viciously slapped the chessboard and game clock onto the floor. Mokuba stared and Seto was silent for a little while before asking, "You're upset that you lost a match in front of him?"

"No," Noa said in a quiet, closed voice, his fingers gripping the edge of the table. "I- I don't know. I was just... angry all of a sudden. I don't know why..."

"'_One_ of them is the future of the Kaiba Corporation,'" Seto quoted. "I'm sure you heard the emphasis. Maybe it was because you lost that match, and he was trying to goad you."

"What's 'goad,' Nii-sama?" Mokuba asked.

"It's like a threat. He was telling Noa that if I get ahead of him, he'll lose his inheritance," Seto explained.

Mokuba frowned. Inheritance. That was what their uncle had taken from them when their parents died. "Aren't all of the children supposed to have inheritance?" Mokuba asked. "When mom and dad died, you had some inheritance and I had some inheritance. But then uncle took it away..."

"Not with something like a family business," Seto said, getting out of his chair and starting to pick up the chess pieces. "Usually the eldest son inherits the company. In the old days, if a man didn't have a son, or if his son was incompetent, sometimes the company would go to his daughter's husband or he would adopt a successor who was competent."

"But... he already had Noa before he adopted us..." Mokuba frowned deeply.

"Right. He's treating Noa like an incompetent," Seto said too directly.

"_Shut up!_" Noa shouted, jumping out of his chair. "I'm as competent as _you_ are!"

"I didn't say you weren't competent," Seto replied, putting a handful of pieces on the table and collecting more. "I said that's how your father was _treating_ you."

Noa stared at him. "N-no. You're wrong. It's because I didn't have any siblings. I needed to have a rival to make me grow strong," Noa protested. "Th-this- it's normal for children to have to work for their parent's approval."

"Where did you hear that?" Seto asked in a faintly sarcastic tone as he finished collecting all the pieces. "Some people say that you're supposed to treat your employees like family. Nobody says that you're supposed to treat your family like employees."

Noa was quiet, a strange, worried look creasing his brow. Mokuba watched him for a moment before turning back to Seto to ask another question. "But what happens to the runner-up?" he asked. "If you win, or if Noa wins, what happens to the other one? Do they become the vice-president?"

"I very much doubt it," Seto snorted. "Gozaburo is a strict man with a cold heart. To him, second-best is the same as a loser, and he doesn't have time for losers."

"But, then... what happens?" Mokuba asked again.

Seto shrugged. "He'll probably send the loser packing. He's set up this game to pick the best son, and after the game's over, he only needs to have one left."

Noa turned suddenly and started walking to the door. "Noa-Nii-sama!" Mokuba cried. "Where are you going?"

"I don't feel like _playing_ anymore," Noa called back, and his voice sounded angry. He pulled the door shut behind him with more force than was necessary and it made a loud sound as he disappeared.

"Nii-sama... You were too harsh. You hurt Noa-Nii-sama's feelings," Mokuba said softly.

"It's the truth," Seto snorted. "And it's only fair. He should know what kind of a game he's playing."

...

Noa knocked on the door to his father's study and a few moments later was bade enter. "Father," he called stepping into the room, "please excuse the intrusion."

"What is it, Noa?" his father asked, waving Noa forward. "You got tired of playing chess with your brother?"

Noa bit his lip. Standing in front of his father's large desk (like an employee) made him suddenly nervous. "Father, I- I wanted to know..." he stammered.

"Speak up, son, what is it?" his father urged.

"I- I wanted to know what- what happens if I am unable to best Seto?" Noa asked carefully and forced his face up to meet his father's eyes. "If- if I lose...?"

Gozaburo gazed at him for a while with serious, thoughtful face. Finally he said, "My son will be the winner." He folded his hands on the desk in front of him and he seemed very large and frightening somehow. "And the winner will be my son."

...

...

A/N: I went back and ret-conned about two paragraphs of the previous chapter after poking through season 3 on Veoh a bit today and noticing that the dialogue in the scene where Seto's talking to Gozaburo about the duel-disk system isn't quite what I had interpreted previously. It's not a big change, just something to better fit continuity, but I thought I'd mention it.


	5. Chapter 5

Noa was helping Mokuba study his flashcards of first-grade math problems. Nothing higher than two digits and nothing more complex than addition or subtraction. Seto could think of nothing more boring as he glanced up from his physics book to where his rival was holding up cards and babbling encouragingly to Mokuba while he read and answered the simple equations aloud.

The two of them were sitting on the carpet in Seto's room, where they liked to congregate after lessons so that Seto would be forced into some togetherness time by proximity if nothing else. It was irritating. Not the noise, their voices weren't especially loud and Seto could easily study amid the minor distraction, it was the subtext that irritated him.

This scene had become more and more frequent over the last month until it seemed that Noa was loitering in Seto's room nearly every afternoon. As though he wanted to be near Seto. He knew the decision to spend the afternoons in Seto's room had to be Noa's, because Mokuba had seemed happy enough to play anywhere within or around the mansion, so long as he was promised a play-mate. But Noa's attitude had been taking a discomforting turn lately.

He'd taken to prompting conversation from Seto more often, and being genuinely engaged by Seto's responses. There was no mocking undertone, there was no deliberate attempt to illicit anger, no masked aggression or even rivalry. It was like he'd started believing in their farcical little 'family'.

Then again, as far as Seto had been able to put together from observation and investigation, Noa had likely never had a family before. Prodding Junko had yielded the knowledge that Noa's mother hadn't stuck around long after his birth. Likely Gozaburo had wanted an heir but had no particular desire for companionship, and so he'd hired a woman to bear him a son and then disappear. That left Noa with no mother and a father to whom he was something more like an insurance policy than a child.

Perhaps their imaginary fraternity had gotten Noa hooked, and now he was attempting to somehow render the filiation legitimate through force of will. Seto snorted to himself at the thought. Noa was a spoiled brat who had always been given everything he could want, naturally now that he'd discovered something he didn't have, he was trying to take it for himself by force.

...

Gozaburo was absent from the Christmas festivities, but Seto wasn't really surprised. When the man was actually at home, he didn't waste his precious time in the presence of children. Junko had gotten their playroom decorated like a department store display and even hired a Santa. Seto also suspected that it was at her direction that the household servants were all dressed finely and attending the children's Christmas party. She did an admirable job of giving children with no real family or friends a decent imitation of a satisfying social life.

"Ohohoho!" the Santa chortled, handing Mokuba another brightly wrapped box. "Mokuba, my elves told me what a good boy you've been!" Every one of the gifts seemed to be wearing a different color paper, professionally wrapped at whatever department store Junko had picked the Santa up from, no doubt.

"I was!" Mokuba agreed excitedly, accepting the box and plopping down onto the carpet to tear at the glitter-spangled tissue paper.

All the festively dressed servants 'oooh'ed and 'ahhh'ed at the new game console Mokuba uncovered, and he obviously delighted in the attention, probably not even realizing that everybody was being paid to be here. It was like their 'family'; an artificial creation of the Kaiba Corporation, fabricated to benefit its investments.

Seto looked down at his cup, deciding that he didn't like eggnog, and stepped back to set it on the edge of the buffet table. He glanced over the miniature food and selected a caramelized onion quiche to munch on.

"And Seto! Where's Seto!" the Santa called in his overly cheerful voice. Seto sighed and walked back over to the tree, pushing the rest of the quiche into his mouth as he went. "There you are, Seto!" the Santa chortled. Two huge, irregular-shaped packages had appeared, and Seto was faintly bemused by how they'd gotten in here so stealthily, but given the identical shape and size of the packages, he guessed that it was matching, competitive toys for himself and Noa. Probably... go-carts.

He and Noa started ripping off the wrapping paper at the same time and indeed, two go-carts immerged, navy-blue and black. That would probably be fun, Seto acknowledged, nodding and running his hand along the sleek, black roll-bar.

"I have a present for Seto-Nii!" Noa announced brightly and Seto glanced up.

"Wonderful!" the Santa exclaimed. "You really are a good boy, Noa!"

Apparently it was gift exchange time now. Seto shrugged slightly. "I have something too," he said and walked over to the chair he'd left the gifts he bought under. "Here, Mokuba, this one's for you," Seto called, carrying over a huge box, wrapped in yellow paper and containing a remote-controlled robot-tyrannosaurus. Mokuba squealed in delight and pounced upon it as Seto held out a fancy envelope to Junko. "Thank you for organizing this party, Junko-san."

"Oh Seto-bozu! That's so sweet! You shouldn't have!" Junko exclaimed, looking flattered and amused at first and then delighted by the spa-passes she found inside.

Mokuba shrieked again as he uncovered the tyrannosaurus and flung himself onto Seto babbling thank-yous and giggling. Seto felt his lips pull into a faint smile as he tousled Mokuba's hair.

When he finally turned back to Noa, Seto felt vague disgust at how unreasonably excited the eleven-year-old looked. Mokuba had an excuse, he was six, but it was nauseating to watch a boy Noa's age acting like such a baby about some over-commercialized, foreign holiday. "I thought for a long time about what would be good. I hope you like it," Noa said grinning hugely, his eyes gleaming, as he held out a small, rectangular package with both hands.

An iPod, Seto guessed, looking at the size and shape. It was the same thing he'd bought for Noa, and you didn't see _him_ getting all smug about it. Seto forced a smile for the audience and held out a nearly identical package as he accepted Noa's.

Noa held the wrapped iPod against his chest, almost entirely ignoring it, as he stared at Seto excitedly. Seto sighed, doing his best not to grimace, and tore the blue and gold paper away from Noa's gift. He looked down at what turned out to be not an iPod but a small, plexi-glass display case.

"... Oh," Seto whispered, feeling suddenly numb as he stared down at the card held between the two planes of clear plastic. "Oh..." he said again, his mouth dry.

He turned the case over in his hands and stared at the familiar pattern on the back, then over again to the picture, stats and description on the front. "Oh..." he said.

"Is... Is it good?" Noa asked, sounding suddenly nervous.

"...Oh," Seto responded blankly, never taking his eyes off the card. "... Thank you," he whispered.

Mokuba abandoned his robo-saurus and peered around Seto's arm to see what he had. "_Wow!_" Mokuba shouted, his eyes going round. "The Blue-Eyes White Dragon! How did you _get_ it, Noa-Nii-san?"

"I had to out-bid this guy in Sweden and he was really persistent, but I finally beat him, and- and I've been keeping it secret for weeks and it was really _hard!_" Noa babbled excitedly.

Seto stood very still, staring at the plexi-glass encased card in his hands and listening to Noa and Mokuba ramble as the adults around them asked in low voices if anybody knew what that thing was and why it was so important.

...

...

This chapter sat around about half-written on my drive for a long time. I finally got around to finishing it on Easter. I had the day off from work and I wasn't on cooking-duty; I also felt compelled to work on not-porn as I was surrounded by family. Mom gave me a bag of Trader Joe's 'Bunny Gummy Tummies' (I'm allergic to chocolate) and while they are entertaining, I don't think they beat the 'Lovey Gummy Tummies' they were selling for Valentine's Day. They were little heart-shaped gummies with cherry-flavored syrup in the center, so if you poke the little heart, it bleeds red goo. Ahahahaha, they are morbidly entertaining. I hope they make them again next year, I only bought one package this year because I didn't know they'd be anything so amusing as bleeding hearts. Oh, Trader Joe's, you always have the best pun-foods...


End file.
